Bobby Helms
Bobby Helms
Robert Lee Helms (August 15, 1933–June 19, 1997)
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Video: You are my Special Angel/ 1957:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_szGb2V-8sc
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1. Fraulein/ Decca 30194/ June 1957/ #36 #1 Country
2. My Special Angel/ Decca 30423/ September 1957/ #7 #1 Country (4)
3. Jingle Bell Rock/ Decca 30513/ December 1957/ #6 (re-released 1958/1960)
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Bobby Helms, born Robert Lee Helms, (15 August 1933 – 19 June 1997) was an American Rockabilly singer who enjoyed his peak success in 1957.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana into a musical family, he began performing as a duo with his brother before going on to a successful solo career in Country music.
In 1956, Helms made his way to Nashville, Tennessee where he signed a recording contract with Decca Records. The following year would be filled with astonishing successes. Helms’ first single in 1957 titled “Fraulein” went to # 1 on the Country music charts and made it into the Top 40 on the PopM usic charts.
Later that same year he released “My Special Angel” that also went to # 1 on the Country charts and entered the Top 10 on Billboard magazines pop music charts, peaking at No. 7.
Released just a few days before Christmas of 1957, his song “Jingle Bell Rock” was a big hit but uniquely, it re-emerged four out of the next five years and sold so well that it repeated each time as a top hit and became a Christmas classic, still played to this day.
Bobby Helms continued touring and recording for the next three decades. His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Helms spent most of his later years living just outside of Martinsville, Indiana, until the time of his death from emphysema and asthma in 1997.
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Thanks for this one Gary, always a fave of mine………such a sweet voice, with so much feeling – also Sonny James ………..same kinda genre……
Hasn’t Jingle Bell Rock been played more than any other record of all time? This arrangement is put together with the perfection of a Swiss clock. It’s flawless. It belongs in a space capsule as a model of 20th century pop recording and arranging. I can listen to the guitar parts over and over. My favorite part: the contrary motion of the background vocals on “dancing and prancing in jingle bell square, in the frosty air.” Seriously, you could devote a book to how BRILLIANTLY this track fits together. And after all is said and done: it swings!
Can you tell I like the song?